OP, FWIW, my tank is similar to yours 54Lx30Wx24D, and peninsula style. I have two G3 Pros with Wide Angle lenses installed. In the 4 months my tank has been operating, it's thus far been a good decision, but I'm still adding frags as the tank is settling in, so growth is just beginning to be noticeable on some of the first additions. I'm also glad I went with the Pros. Net is:
- The Wide Angle lenses do a lot better job reducing shadows on my 30" wide tank than the standard lenses did, and I have coverage out towards the edges of my sand bed that the standards didn't reach as well. I'm very happy with that. Fortunately, with a screwdriver and a few minutes time, once you purchase the wide angle lenses, you can try it both ways for yourself.
- With the G3 Pros and Wide Angle lenses, you'll achieve perhaps 60% PAR that is possible with normal lenses. PAR drops off even more as you go further down and away from under each lens. You therefore need to think through how you design your aquascape in relation to the lens positions and where you want to place what sort corals with what lighting requirements, especially as you go down with the 30" depth you have. e.g. I purposely have my Radions positioned lengthwise and squeezed a couple inches closer together towards the center of the tank for more overlapping coverage there, vs having them equidistant as likely most people would, so I have positions for a couple more SPS that can receive the most of what my lighting can achieve.
- Take a look at my post HERE. Stare at the photo of my aquascape for a sec and then the PDF of PAR I put together and you'll see what I mean with the above. Given that and your 6" deeper tank, if you believe you need even more PAR, you need to either stick with the standard lenses to get more reach down into your tank, but live with a bit more shadowing on the fringes; and/or perhaps consider 3 fixtures, not 2...
- UV is the other thing... In most, if not all of their tools, EchoTech defaults UV to 100% in the 14K-20K spectrums. IMHO regardless of overall intensity, you should independently turn UV way down until you see what it does over time, then crank it back up as you see fit. From my experience, it's way too high for some corals at the outset, even as you begin acclimation to bring up the overall intensity...
IMHO, the decision between standard and wide-angle lenses is not a simple or cut-and-dried thing on wider and/or deeper tanks. There isn't a single answer. I'm super happy that EcoTech has given us a choice of lenses, but wish I had understood some of the effects on PAR more than I did earlier this year when I was in design & build-mode. Most of my choices ended-up being acceptable now that I'm loading up the tank. Given my cabinet design, I couldn't have taken the heat a 3rd Radion would have generated without adding a chiller, and I really didn't want to do that ...but looking back on it now,
if I could have managed the additional heat, I would likely have put in 3 Radion G3 Pros, positioned them front-to-back (vs end-to-end like I have now), used the wide angle lenses for coverage on either the end units or perhaps the center, but likely not all 3 so that I could achieve more PAR down into the tank in a few select locations. I likely would have then been able to also run the Radions at lower overall intensity than I do today with just two. I'm all for keeping my options open. There are so many in this hobby! Good luck!
any other sales coming up?
